8 Nov 2020

Sailed nine hours around to Suva with spinnaker up the last six hours in 10-15 knots of wind. Had visits from dolphins and yes, more Petrels. First thing Monday we checked in with Immigrations, stood in the queue and got our number and were quickly told if we could wait a short while they would produce the visa letter for our special permit for yachts. We waited, and waited until they asked us to return at noon for the correct person to stamp our passports. It was quite hot but we needed a good walk and went further into town to the crafts market and around the fresh market. We decided to go back early just to sit in the AC waiting room but turned out by the time we got our new number and waited half an hour it was noon.

The visa letter was issued and we paid the remaining fees only to find it was only for six months--not the year for which we had applied. And three months had already passed for essentially in less than 3 months we have to apply again! Without getting aggressive, I asked why we didn't qualify for the one year. Not quite sure what the response meant but he kept repeating we next would qualify for a 3 year residency. It is what it is and we are just grateful to be safe here with zero Covid.

Diwali, Festival of Lights and new beginnings started on Friday and the Suva Yacht Club had a celebration Saturday so we ended up staying through the weekend to enjoy the party and fireworks. It is also a major gift giving event so the stores were filled with extravagantly dressed men and women in Hindu outfits. Parks and restaurant held family picnics and gatherings. We had many questions from people we met about the election results. They have experienced several coups here but were surprised anything like that could happen in America.

I now have new prescription glasses and sunglasses again! Last pair went overboard a year ago and John has been freaking out about my lack of distance vision. They do the lenses in-house we so we took off for a couple days to Beqa (pronounced Mbengga) to re-visit the inner reef until the glasses would be ready. We anchored at a new spot behind a tiny deserted island with some surprise pinnacles that did not allow us to get too close. The water was shallow enough that I could play with my weight belt and do some free diving practice without a wetsuit even. A VERY large turtle went about his business totally ignoring us. Out last night out there we finally saw another sunset green flash! I've just bought a real Canon camera and was practicing.

Sadly the weather changed so not difficult to pull up anchor and head back to Suva for my glasses. We had 15-20 and rain squalls with confused swell all day. The final insult was our fishing lines fouled one another and we spent the final hour unraveling everything while avoiding commercial traffic back into Suva harbor.